The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-12-22
FARM NOTES.

C0nnecticut but one have been pur-
chased by the authorities and con-
verified into free public highways.
In the rural districts of France
bread is baked but once each month
The kneading is done by men and the
huge loaves are baked in large ovens
Dry road dust or earth should be
gathered for use in the hen house dur
ing winter. A supply of sawdust is
also excellent for spreading upon the
floor.
Cordial and brandy made of black
currants are having a large sale in
various countries of Europe. where
they are chiefly used for medicinal
purposes.
A farmer on Staten island, n. j..
has cow that has given an average
amount of milk during this season,
though she dropped her last calf flye
years ago.
How to keep up the fertility of pas
tures is a question that is now inter-
esting New England farmers, and is a
question whose consideration is in
creasing in Importance from year TO
year.
If farmers were better acquainted
with botany, understanding more fully
the laws of vegetable growth, better
success might attend their sowing SEED
and better fruits and crops might be
grown.
The careful farmer plans his work
go as to have jobs suitable for rainy
DAYS on which to employ hired help;
but sometimes it is better to give help
an occasional rainy day-they will
work the better for it.
It is not the food that hens consume
that makes them lay that is expensive,
no matter what the cost; it is the food
that fails to produce eggs, even il it is
cheap, that adds to the expense OF
z keeping for egg production,
After patient and persistent trial
extending through five years New
York man has succeeded in inducing
a horse to eat prickly comfrey. 1t is
now proposed to see if it can be made
to relish picked olives and Browning's 8
poetry.
Farmers do not fully appreciate the
value of wood ashes or they would not
sell them to soap men. but Wnuld
spread them upon moving lands OF
apply them to growing crops. They
contain all the essential inorganic
elements of plants
Dealers in apples in Liverpool and
Glasgow report the market brisk for
highly colored fruit. and very dull for
that that does not have attractive
color. Apples of cherry red color
generally ego off like hot cakes, even
Il the quality is very poor.
As old leather-boots. shoes. etc.
contains ammonia compounds, al
though in q case of extremely slow
solubility, a good disposition to be
made of them is to bury them at the
foot of fruit trees or grape vines,
where they will furnish slow fertil.
izer.
It is much better for any farmer to
have NOW of hay or q quantity OF
grain left over than to be so short in
supply as to be obliged to feed close
and thus cause u reduced condition
of animals 1t is also better to feed
any surplus on the farm than to sell
it off of the same.
On the Cornelius farm, near Mon
roe, Wis, are two eate-posts OF red
cedar, cut off the lands near Honey
creek nearly fifty years ago. They
are solid aud good to-day. and remain
where they were first set,. in front OF
the cabin, which was one of the first
built in Green county.
The defect in the Hatch experiment
station law by which no money was
appropriated to carry out its provis.
ions will doubtless be rectified as soon
as possible after Congress assemblies,
and friends of the law predict that the
appropriation will date back to the
origin al ma Ssa ore of the bill
-. Vermont is undoubtedly the garden
nf the East. Tie Vermont farmer is
not merely staying on his broad acres
until he can get a job in store or a
mill, but he is there to make them
yield good living for himself and
fanlily and leave them in good con-
dition for his Mirror ana
Farmer.
According to the estimates given to
the recent convention of American
Cranberry Growers at Philadelphia,
the entire crop this year is placed at
b69, 900 bushels. Last year it was
687 900. The crop in 1885 was very
large in Wisconsin and small in New
Jersey. In Nova Scotia the product
Is Increasing.
The butter and cheese dealers OF
New York city recently voted to pc
fition congress to lower the duty on
English dairy salt The report that
adulterated cheese was made and sold
in the state was denied by Commits
sioner Van Valkenburgh, who had a
personal knowledge of most of the
factories and their products.
1t has been decided to have modern
creaming done at all the Wisconsin in
stitutes the coming winter and have
butter publicly made. Opportunity
will be given to manufacturers of
creamers to exhibit, raise cream. and
make butter, if they desire. Oil or
butter tests will be made at the same
time of the mixed milk used by the
parties. for the purpose of comparing
methods and results.
As Illustrating the difference be-
tween the time consumed in tillage
where the rows are long or short, Sec-
retary Bonham, of the Ohio state
board of agriculture. gives an instance
of D field of corn in which the rows
were 110 rods long,the piece being
about one-third as wide. The culti-
walton covering about twenty-five
acres, required three days for the long
way and four and half days for the
cross cultivation.
A new variety of barley was a few
years ago introduced into Minnesota
and Dakota from British America,
which is said to be the most productive
small grain known in any part of the
world. A yield of thirty-four bushels
from bushel of seed is reported. The
color of the grain is black. If the re-
ports of its productiveness are true it
will be likely to supersede corn as a
food for hogs and oats as food for
horses.
In some parts of Australia the Scotch
thistle, which has been hitherto re-
garded as great nuisance, is being
used for ensilage. One farmer, who
had two acres of land completely over
run with thistles, had them cut down
and stacked in green state, with
earth on top to serve as weight. The
result was quantity of silage which
aafflo oapc11O,ad NTH II